Chapter 170 – #37_Friendship?(3)
#168
1.
How can night and day be so different?
Even though it’s the same space on the first floor of the department store, the darkness that has dyed the surroundings presses down heavily on my shoulders.
No, is it the fault of the monsters that are loitering around without attacking, even though they’ve finished their encirclement, that’s weighing down my shoulders?
Siwoo muttered.
The standoff, which made me wonder if this time was really necessary, continued.
The longer the standoff, the more sweat trickled down my back.
The red eyes surrounding us from all directions, like blinking warning lights, added to the tension, but they didn’t move, as if waiting for something.
However, this tense standoff was also a time when I could talk to Sharon.
“Do you have any guesses?”
“Nothing. But something’s strange… If there were this many, we would have found them while searching, even if the homunculi usually hide in pocket dimensions.”
Siwoo agreed with Sharon’s opinion.
It’s not just one or two.
Maybe dozens, or even hundreds considering the size of this building.
We never found them even once?
“Are homunculi intelligent?”
“It depends on the number and shape of their eyes, but… you’ve seen them. They’re no different from beasts.”
“But what is this? It’s like someone’s controlling them.”
“Controlling…?”
Siwoo began to explain what he thought Sharon would naturally know.
“First, they’ve been hiding to avoid our search. Second, they lured us without showing themselves, maintaining a 150-meter distance.
Finally, they maintained their distance until we reached the center of the department store, where there’s no escape, and then they simultaneously narrowed the encirclement. Isn’t that strange?”
It’s too meticulous.
For creatures no different from beasts to move so uniformly, as if they were one body.
Homunculus, control…
A witch flashed through Sharon’s mind.
“Ah… Could it be.”
“Do you have a hunch?”
But Sharon immediately dismissed her hypothesis.
It couldn’t be.
If that ‘public enemy’ were here, there would have been a much bigger commotion than this.
A huge disaster would have occurred.
Since we encountered these black dogs about three months ago, if the culprit of this series of events was the ‘Cowardly Witch,’ she wouldn’t have caused such a small-scale incident.
Moreover, wasn’t the last time the Cowardly Witch appeared during the Chernobyl incident?
She’s been hiding from the world for decades.
“No, let’s focus on getting out of here first.”
“How many can you handle with your remaining mana?”
“About 20. What about you?”
“…I guess I’ll have to see.”
The good thing is that Siwoo is much calmer than I thought.
Even for Sharon, who has quite a bit of hunting experience, this situation is quite dangerous.
It might be different in action movies, but in real fights, numbers can overturn an overwhelming skill difference.
Even if you didn’t know that, you’d be scared looking at the pressure of being surrounded and the monsters growling from all sides.
But Siwoo didn’t show any signs of that.
If Siwoo weren’t here, wouldn’t Sharon be the one panicking?
His calmness is contagious, and it makes my head feel cooler.
“You’re reliable, aren’t you?”
Siwoo looked at Sharon, slightly surprised by the words that came out of my mouth, and then chuckled.
“Their numbers are increasing.”
“Are you saying we should move right now?”
“I’m saying it’s better to move as soon as possible. But there’s a problem. The encirclement at the entrance is strangely loose.”
Sharon looked around after hearing Siwoo’s words.
There are definitely fewer glowing eyes in some places.
“I have an idea, do you want to hear it? If you don’t think it’s right, just ignore it. You have more experience than me.”
“What is it? I’ll listen.”
Siwoo told Sharon the conclusion he had drawn from his observations.
Perhaps sensing that there wasn’t much time, he spoke very quickly.
“Compared to the loose encirclement at the entrance, the encirclement at the escalator leading to the underground is very dense. I think they’re deliberately pushing us towards the entrance. That is, if they’re intelligent enough to do that.”
“You’re saying we shouldn’t run to the entrance?”
“Given the circumstances, we’re prey that’s been lured here. There’s no need to let them off easy.”
Sharon nodded.
Siwoo’s opinion is quite plausible.
If they just wanted to chase us away, there would have been no need to build such a complicated encirclement.
“So, my idea is to escape through the underground shopping center to the subway. What do you think?”
Usually, in this kind of situation, you would act as you see fit.
But Siwoo combined the given information and accurately diagnosed the situation.
“Let’s go first. I’ll break through the front, and you cover me only when I can’t react. Conserve your mana as much as possible. If a major danger arises, I’ll need your power more than mine.”
Moreover, without showing any fear, he stands in the direction where the most eyes are shining.
Sharon was secretly impressed.
“Okay, let’s do as you say.”
“Right now…”
Siwoo’s foot kicks off the ground.
Perhaps because it was such an agile acceleration that even Sharon was taken aback, the black dog pack that had slightly revealed itself in the decorative lights seemed to shrink back.
“Run!”
Particles of shadow gathered in Siwoo’s right hand, forming the shape of a sword.
At the same time, a ribbon that sprouted from near his hip sharply lashed out at the surroundings.
-Growl! Growl!
-Kieeeek!
The department store, which had been in a tense silence, instantly turned into chaos.
Clothes, cosmetics, and jewelry displays were all destroyed without exception.
Some were sent flying dozens of meters by the ribbon, some were rushing in with their teeth bared, and some were chasing after Sharon and Siwoo.
“Ah!”
Sharon cried out and was about to swing her wand.
It was because she saw three black dogs leaping and blocking Siwoo’s path at the same time.
Their speed was so fast that they were almost invisible to the naked eye.
If you think of a motorcycle rushing at full speed to hit a person, it’s about the same speed and power.
If it were Siwoo from before, he might have blocked them, but he would have been pushed back.
However, through his battles so far, Siwoo had analyzed his weaknesses.
That is, the law of shadows that is responsible for Siwoo’s close combat is a very weak magic physically.
As the micro-magic circles that interfere with magic are gathered in particle form, they might be strong against large-scale magic battles, but their physical destructive power itself is not very outstanding.
Moreover, it’s the same even in front of pure and dense mana.
What compensated for that lightness was the elemental magic he learned from Sharon, especially the earth attribute.
Using the heavy and dull characteristics of the earth element, he gave weight to the shadows and increased their density.
If the weapons Siwoo had been fighting with were cotton swabs, now he was wielding a metal bat filled to the brim.
-Thud!
At the same time, the sound of being hit by a truck rang out.
The homunculus fell in a lump from the air.
It wasn’t an everyday sight.
The average human body doesn’t have that kind of athletic ability.
But the feeling in his hand proves it.
Even with the same power, just by adding weight, its destructive power is greatly increased.
-Kyaooo!
Before Siwoo could recover his posture, a monster that had kicked off the ceiling was shot at Siwoo like an air-to-ground missile.
It was too late to correct his posture.
Because he had swung from right to left in a large motion, it was also too late to raise his left-hand shield to block.
In that split second.
Siwoo didn’t hesitate to modify the shape of the sword he had just used to swing and knock away the homunculus.
Instead of a longsword, he turned the shadow into a straight spear and angled it towards the homunculus flying in the air.
The fate of the monster that rushed into the upright spear was miserable.
-Kieeeek!
Leaving behind a terrible scream, Siwoo immediately released the spear to reduce the impact and then advanced again.
It was a natural movement, like water flowing.
It’s strange.
Siwoo hadn’t really learned how to handle his body except for magical combat.
Even the taekwondo academy that every Korean man has attended at least once was something that was not for Siwoo.
That’s why he swung his sword so awkwardly when he first hunted homunculi in the present world, right?
No, to describe his appearance at that time, it would be more fitting to say that he was being swung by the sword.
But his body moves.
As if the memory was engraved in his body, before he even thought about ‘how to defeat the enemy,’ he naturally created a weapon and killed the enemy by taking advantage of the most precise gap.
His body movements and movements were much more natural than during the fierce battle with Della.
-Kieeeek!
Sharon was half-dazed, watching Siwoo’s back as he broke through the encirclement as if running.
At first, her biggest concern was worry.
No matter how much experience Siwoo had in fighting homunculi, he was far behind Sharon.
Moreover, with this number and the engagement at once, an ordinary person would panic and get their hands and feet tangled…
-Whoosh!
A ribbon, swung like a sharp whip, simultaneously knocked away two homunculi that were attacking Sharon from behind.
At the same time, she knocked down one with a blow that put her weight on the shield and then burst its head with her foot.
Without even looking, he knocked away the homunculus rushing at Sharon and at the same time dealt with the monster rushing from the front.
Sharon was reminded of one word as she watched him.
Yungtongmuae (융통무애).
A four-character idiom that means that thoughts and actions are connected, there is no blockage, and one is free.
That’s how uninhibited his movements were.
There was not even a moment of hesitation or a break in the flow.
Like a seasoned hunter, he skillfully used his magic, constantly changing the shape of his weapon and slaughtering the homunculi.
Thanks to that, Sharon didn’t have to swing her wand even once while escaping the encirclement.
While Sharon was lost in these unexpected thoughts, Siwoo killed three more homunculi in the blink of an eye.
Sharon, who walks the path of magic, felt a sense of awe at Siwoo’s ability to break through obstacles using techniques that could only be described as martial arts.
His skills were something that could only be obtained after a long period of self-imposed hardship and training that was close to abuse.
With that level of skill, could he defeat Della despite the difference in magical abilities?
Could it be that Siwoo really defeated Della?
Even such absurd delusions arose.
Siwoo, who was silently paving the way through the scattering homunculus fluids and screams.
The entrance to the escalator, which seemed impossible to reach, was visible.
-Grrrrr….
“Hoo….”
However, the homunculi did not actively try to stop Siwoo, but rather maintained the initial standoff, keeping a certain distance.
Thanks to that, Siwoo, who was able to catch his breath, wiped the sweat flowing under his chin and looked around.
And he was surprised.
The number of monsters that had filled the hall to the point of being swarming had decreased to the point where they could be counted by eye.
The many, annoying creatures were all backing away with their tails between their legs.
It’s like.
There wasn’t much emotion.
When Siwoo first defeated a homunculus, he dragged his aching body and jumped around due to the side effects of excessive magic.
It was as if his past achievements and efforts were being rewarded.
But if the fight becomes this one-sided and overwhelming, rather than being happy with the sense of accomplishment, it’s more like, ‘Did I really do this?’
“At this rate, we don’t even need to run away, do we?”
After all, Siwoo and Sharon had been roaming around every night to hunt homunculi.
Siwoo’s opinion was that there was no need to run away since they had succeeded in such a large-scale hunt.
“Still, you never know. They might have more ambushes.”
Unexpectedly, Sharon also did not express a cautious stance.
Although there were many suspicious points, the number of homunculi that Siwoo had caught, including the ones that were added in the middle, was roughly 80.
If they cleaned up the rest, it would be about 100.
Even if they only get 1 million won per head, that’s 100 million won.
It’s 100 million won that you can never earn in a short period of time by doing ordinary work, and you can earn it just by rummaging through corpses.
With 100 million won, I don’t have to rely on Siwoo.
Of course, Sharon had no intention of claiming ownership of all the spoils.
Although there was an agreement between Siwoo and Sharon: ‘The ownership of the crystals obtained from hunting together belongs to Sharon, and Sharon will replace it with magic lessons,’ she wasn’t that shameless.
But even if they catch the remaining 20, it’s at least 20 million won. I can easily meet the minimum payment for the next quarter.
That thought temporarily took away Sharon’s ability to judge reality.
“Then I’ll take care of the rest.”
Sharon raised her wand.
